The 4 best Dyson Airwrap dupes for 2025, tested by a beauty expert

Multi-stylers are sold on the idea of being easy to use. That means at a minimum, I expected attachments to work without much help on my end, heat and air settings to be located in convenient places on the base of a tool so I could adjust them mid-styling, and storage solutions to be smart.

The Airwrap itself measures its temperature over 40 times a second to ensure it never ventures beyond 302 degrees Fahrenheit. (Your hair's keratin strands typically start weakening when exposed to heat above the 300-degree mark, Dyson says.) The only tool we tested that isn't comparable in this sense is the One-Step, but it does have multiple heat settings so you don't have to default to a constant blast of ends-scorching air.

While the Airwrap became famous thanks to its curling barrel attachment, part of the appeal (and justification behind its price point) is the amount of styling you can do with just one tool. Dupes that could provide nearly or just as much variability in styling earned high points in this category.

As someone who's tested every single model of the Airwrap, I will be the first to admit they're very expensive — but that they can show their price point (in a good way). All this to say, it's easy for a dupe to look far more affordable than the $650 Airwrap i.d., which is why I looked at more than a lower price point when determining the overall value of a tool. The build quality of the base and attachments needed to feel sturdy and reliable, the heat and air settings consistent, the storage options available. I factored all of the above (and any extras) in determining whether a tool justified its price point.

Read our full review of the Shark FlexStyle.

If you want the closest possible version of the Dyson Airwrap for roughly half the price, you want the Shark FlexStyle.

Shark didn't have to reinvent the wheel when they created their Airwrap dupe, but they decided to innovate a little anyway. They introduced a twisting base mechanism that allows the tool to function more like a normal hair dryer, without any attachments. They also beat Dyson to the punch by offering a diffuser and other attachments aimed at wavy and curly-haired customers.

Even more than the tool itself, Shark has been more creative in how you can experience its multi-styler. While Dyson finally got around to offering a customization tool for the Airwrap in October 2023 that lets customers get attachment bundles slightly more targeted to their hair type, Shark has offered a build-your-own option that lets you individually select three attachments (at a slightly cheaper price) since its release in September 2022. At the time of writing, the build-your-own option is less than half the price of the Airwrap, clocking in at $299.99.

As for how the tool actually performs, I'd say it's pretty damn close. When I styled half my hair with the Airwrap and half with the FlexStyle, it was genuinely hard to tell the difference. Sure, only select bundles come with a storage case (or it's $59.99 sold separately), and some of the attachments feel less elegant than the Airwrap. For instance, Shark's styling concentrator doesn't really match up to Dyson's dryer and flyaway smoother, often resulting in a dry time that's ever-so-slightly longer than the Airwrap. Shark's tool is slightly louder, and curling barrels still require you to switch barrels when you want to switch the curl direction, like the first-gen Airwrap, while the Airwrap's curling barrel has a switch at the top that can change the direction of the curl. (I was able to get around switching barrels by using the tool upside down to switch the direction of the curls, but this is a slightly less elegant solution.) The actual curls I got from the barrels, however, were basically identical in shine and longevity.

I also appreciate that the FlexStyle comes with a diffuser (Dyson's now offers one too, but you either have to buy it separately or with a bundle that also includes a wide tooth comb, an attachment that you likely won't be using with looser waves and curls). The twisting base allowed me to dry my hair all over with the diffuser much easier than a straight wand would.

Ultimately, after spending several months with both tools, and after trying some of the more high-tech features on the newer Dyson, I believe the FlexStyle's overall value makes it the better choice for most buyers. As I wrote in my review for the FlexStyle, "[It's] hard for me to imagine a reason why you'd opt for the [Airwrap] unless you're into big purchases for the sake of big purchases, or if you're especially loyal to Dyson."

Details

Multi-stylers may be all about the convenience of an all-in-one tool, but their storage solutions are often bulky (even in the case of the Airwrap). With the T3 Aire 360, T3 succeeded in not only making a multi-styler that performs very similarly to the Shark FlexStyle but also offers a smart storage solution.

The vegan leather storage case is pretty enough not to hide away, small enough if you do want to chuck it under your bathroom sink, and makes organizing your attachments easy. If you want a multi-styler but aren't sure if you have the space, T3 is likely to be your best option (and the most underrated Airwrap dupe on the market).

T3 has been a name in the hair space for some time, thanks to its ever-popular curling and straightening irons, known to perform well and last forever. It felt only inevitable until the brand hopped on the multi-styler train, and it's done exactly that with plenty of grace.

With more and more dupes coming out, the gaps to fill are becoming fewer and fewer, but T3 correctly identified that the storage gap was wide open. Before I get more into that, yes, the tool performs very well. Like any other multi-styler that isn't the Dyson Airwrap, you have to switch curling barrels for different curling directions, but the curls this tool produced were full and neater than I'd come to expect with testing multi-stylers. They also lasted more as a true loose curl than straightening out to a loose wave, as I'd experienced with the FlexStyle and Airwrap, thanks to the ceramic barrels.

Styling time was on par with the FlexStyle; the tool maxed out at 203 degrees Fahrenheit to keep things healthy, and the round brush was easy to brush through my hair without snagging, with a size that was perfect for offering plenty of volume. This tool is also incredibly light, clocking in at 1.2 pounds, as compared with the FlexStyle and Airwrap, which both sit around 1.5 pounds.

Now, please allow me to gush about the storage case. The FlexStyle doesn't come with a case in its base kits. The Airwrap's case is an organized, but massive brick that is too big for me to want to actually use regularly. T3 hit the perfect happy medium with a leather pouch — it feels luxe but functional, with interior pockets so everything has its place, and the drawstring closure keeps your product out of sight. It's not an eyesore at all, so I happily kept it out in my room, making it easy to reach for and store.

My main gripe with this tool is that the attachment options are limited, but if you're looking for a fairly curated multi-styler experience, this might be a bonus for you. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we see some more variety in this area from T3 in the future. For now, I can say the T3 Aire 360 offers the best basic multi-styler experience.

Details

Read our full review of the Revlon One-Step.

The Revlon One-Step is the original Airwrap dupe, launching in 2016 and going viral on TikTok in 2020. While there are better dupes these days, it's still one of the best ways to get an easy blowout for under $50 — just please use heat protectant, and only go in on mostly dry hair if you want to avoid major heat damage.

Honestly, it's kind of iconic that you can buy roughly 21 One-Steps for the price of a single Airwrap i.d.. What keeps the One-Step on our list, though, is that this large-barreled brush does deliver on bounce and volume, without a tough learning curve. While I certainly didn't find it to be all that comparable to the Airwrap in terms of the variety of the results, and I felt that it generally ran hotter and put my hair through the heat-damage wringer more than the pricier alternatives on this list, I still liked this tool for an easy blowout.

However, it bears repeating — drying your hair beforehand is essential. You don't need to get it all the way dry, but at least to the 85 percent point if you want to keep this tool from giving you the fried look. This does knock some points off the convenience scale, as you will either need to air dry or use a separate hair dryer. I'd also recommend only using the low and cool settings if you can get away with it, as the high setting really does up the ante. While these are drawbacks, if you've never quite been able to figure out how to wrestle with a round brush and hair dryer at the same time (society needs to stop acting like this is easy), then the One-Step makes a blowout much more attainable, for a fraction of the price of not only the Airwrap, but the other dupes on this list.

Details

The amika Blowout Babe is the least like the Airwrap and its dupes on this list, but it has its place for anyone looking for the easiest possible blowout and doesn't mind starting with completely dry hair.

For people who don't get their hair wet in the morning, who are sensitive to the loud sound that's unavoidable with air-styling tools, or don't have a ton of storage space, a thermal brush like the Blowout Babe is a great option that still provides you plenty of volume, shine, and life to your hair.

Instead of using hot air to achieve your fresh-from-the-salon look, this thermal brush uses far infrared heat that radiates from the ceramic barrel to provide even heat that'll keep a sleek style locked in, without scorching your strands.

Of course, you'll want to use a heat protectant (as you would with any heat styling), as more direct contact with the barrel that styling with this brush requires can put your hair at a higher risk for damage than a hot air tool. However, you do get some pretty big pros in return: your hairstyle is likely to be locked in longer, a brush is less unwieldy to use than a tool blowing out air, making touchups and the initial learning process easier, and a single brush is going to take up way less storage space than any of the other tools on this list.

Will you have less versatility than with multi-stylers? Yes, but not as much as you might think — for all their attachments, multi-stylers are basically tools to deliver slightly different blown-out looks. Against the multi-stylers, I found the 1.5-inch barrel of the amika brush to provide comparable volume and bounce, and with some practice, some more defined (and long-lasting) waves than I could achieve with the Airwrap. The brush also has a special negative ion mode that provided noticeably smoother locks than any blowout I got using hot air. And maybe the best thing about this TikTok-viral thermal brush? It retails for $100, making it one of the cheapest dupes I recommend.

Details